The Xbox controller has a small USB wireless receiver to plugin into the PC. It works pretty much native on every game nowadays. Just plug and play without any trickery.
These controllers have been separately sold as PC compatible devices, which makes sense considering Windows and Xbox are from the same company. Before I had this one I used my PS3 controller which did require an emulator to run. Annoyingly, that thing always turned on the PS3 as soon as I disconnected it from the PC. @_@

So when I'm ingame I simply turn it on when I get into a car and continue to drive with that.

By the way, a small detail I liked the devs put in, I'm using a Logitech G910 keyboard, and as soon as the game loads, the color layout changes into the red III logo.

Oh and that box is massive as it contains 6 discs. It's about 1,5 times the thickness of a normal box.

-edit-
I forgot to mention, much to my relief. The time lapse clouds have indeed been fixed and the sky is now actually pleasant to look at. Also the overall lighting seems to have been adjusted slightly for the better.
The weather still behaves odd occasionally though, changing from fog to rain, to sun, to rain, to fog, to thunder and back to sun in less than 200 meters of driving. But at least that is not as annoying as those cloud shadows were._________________

The soundtrack was pretty much perfect, H13 sure have nice tastes. Only complaint would be that a few select songs plays over and over again. And Rob i do agree anyone could throw that soundtrack together and be the same, but I was surprised by a few of the songs picked.

Did any of you try the 'new' dlc yet? I have no intention to play it, but maybe someone could convince me to

That thing always turned on the PS3 as soon as I disconnected it from the PC. @_@

lostinmafia_heavenMS wrote:

I was surprised by a few of the songs picked.

Agree. I remember, the first thing I heard when I started playing was "A little less conversation, a little more action..." and I thought oh come, the tune's great, that's for sure, but it's so overplayed it's become a cliche of some kind. But some songs that I heard later I actually wouldn't have expected to hear in this game. Those were great times of great music... Shame that Hendrix only got the main menu part. I guess his music is just very very expensive to use.

Songs aside, I loved the commercials, even if these salesmen sometimes try too hard Those burger ads tho...

Haven't played the DLC but I definitely will sometime.

--edit

Forgot to mention one small detail, that makes all the Mafia franchise stand out among other games from the genre, the detail, which, thank god, they didn't remove in this game. It's the ability to park a car with its wheels turned at any angle and not straightened after exiting the vehicle. I don't know why but I find this so awesome.

I'll definitely check out the new dlc with Donovan, the mafia series always had a good sidekick to the player, will be sweet to have him joining us in the field. Also the new location is what a lot fans wanted to be the beginning of the game, kinda like M2.

My observations about the game (haven't played it in a while though so I may forget something and also haven't touched any of the DLC-s)

Positive:
Beautiful cutscenes and animations
Nice scenery and atmosphere overall
Rearview mirrors on cars
The combat is OK
Driving can be quite fun
Some of the charactes were quite interesting (Donovan!)
Soundtrack
The idea of the territory system is cool (although the execution is not the best)

Negative:
It was released unfinished (it seems to be a trend in the gaming industry sadly)
The gameplay is heavily dumbed down in almost all aspects (also a trend in the gaming industry...)
The game looks bad overall
The game runs bad
Repetitive and boring missions
Car damage is nonexistant (it's f-ing 2017 FFS and these are not even licensed real cars...)
AI is dumb
The story is boring! (yeah, I said it! Great cinematography does not equal great story and frankly I can't understand why the story gets so much praise)

OVERALL: 4/10

I can't really recommend this game as there are so many much better games around. Some parts of the game are OK but overall it's a massive disappointment. I'm still going to try out the DLC's at some point though... for two reasons 1) I am still a fan of the franchise. Can't deny it. 2) It can't get much worse...

I quite agree with that list. Though to the game's defence, licensing real car names for a game like this won't ever happen for the sole reason that -say- Ford wouldn't like videos and Google search suggestions mentioning "Ford mustang killing pedestrians speedrun" or something in that notion.
It's bad publicity for any car brands to associate themselves with crime. Hence why GTA has also never had, and never will use real car brands. Besides, I reckon these licenses would cost a lot, which does not weigh up to what you physically get for it, which is just a brand name.
Ever noticed how in games where real car brands are used, there are never any people to hit and rarely any excessive car damage models used?

The story ain't fantastic indeed, but you can't deny that they did put some of effort into it. It's certainly not in the same league as Mafia 1, but it's not halfassed either as far as I've seen.
They even put in small cutscenes of "alternate endings" when Lincoln dies during a mission, which I think is a really cool detail. It is even customised to how you died._________________

One thing that keeps me from enjoying this game is Lincoln I just can't get behind him and the way he bosses people around, I get he has his military background, but it just didn't work for me. I liked the idea to play a character like his though.

I guess he's a 'badass', you keep repeating the same words over and over eventually they lose their meaning, that's what I felt with Lincoln, however with a guy like Vito when he had to be 'badass' it felt real. Lincoln feels more like a video game stereotype and his words become hollow, you can then call Vito a Italian-gangster stereotype, fine by me

Indeed, and even though 2KC dropped the ball on a lot of oppertunities to expand the emotional side of the story, they still made Vito a lot more human and relatable to the player because you had an insight into his personal life outside of the Mafia world. This is a really important human touch that I so far felt lacking with Lincoln.
For one who's always acting badass, it simply becomes a dull and meaningless standard. It's just like in reallife. Someone who always has a temper tantrum about anything would be ignored by pretty much everyone, whereas if a nice person suddenly would have one, it would leave a massive impact. That's why a small moment in M2 where Vito beats up that guy who threatened Joe's girl, is a lot more powerful than the 300th time where some buffed army guy buries his knife into someone's skull._________________

Ever noticed how in games where real car brands are used, there are never any people to hit and rarely any excessive car damage models used?

As a matter of fact, Driver San Francisco was a game which combined both real car brands and lots of pedestrians. But of course, these pedestrians could never be injured and would just simply step aside

As far as Lincoln is concerned, yeah.... I definitely agree, it was just too much... badass (can't find a better word) behavior. After a while I was like "yeah, yeah, you're the cool rambo guy, I get it". (It kinda reminds me of that lunatic Trevor from GTA V. God, that dude's disgusting...) You just pretty much know what to expect from the character and it often becomes boring. Good thing there's Donovan!

Fortunately for GTA they allowed or even forced the player to switch to a different character, which was a great idea as it allows to include rather one-dimensional characters. If Trevor was the only character, the game would have received a lot less praise on the story aspect because of the lack of variety.

Having only one playable character demands a lot of indepth character development, which includes a broad range of emotions that are to be dealt with.

I guess that's also what made Mafia 1 so fantastic by turning Sam against Tommy, as you've seen him in a multitude of scenario's, all in a varying degree of emotional state. From the first scene where Tom thinks he's a stonecold murderer who's about to pull a gun on him, to helping him out in a near death state, to fighting along side with him, and to eventually get confronted by his loyalty to Salieri. The first time I played "The Death of Art" it had caught me off guard incredibly. One of the few plot twists that actually made a lot of sense. Anyway, I digress._________________

This game didn't feel like a Mafia franchise game to me at all to be fair. It felt like a pretty generic third person shooter, and it was very repetitive. Were it not for the district takeover missions and the ending (which was actually pretty decent), the game would be completely monotonic. However, between those takeover missions there's a lot to do. But anyway, the game was still rather fun when shooting was involved, the shooting system is actually great. But storywise, it's just not a Mafia game at all. I replayed Mafia 1 recently and I realised even more how distant Mafia 3 is from it's prequel and especially Mafia 1. But still, I enjoyed it for what it is.

I'll say it too. I'm having fun with Mafia 3, and I think it could be way better.

-For one I believe it's poorly optimized.
-The police and the removal of the traffic violations has to be my biggest gripe with the game. It adds so much to make the world feel real. They really should have kept it. I would have even been a great way to illustrate the prejudice/racism of police towards blacks. There could have been ways to show it in the way they dealt with Lincoln speeding after they pulled him over, and saw what color his skin was.
-Some of the downtown roads have streetcar tracks. I think the development team was planning to make streetcars? I know Mafia 2 has a cut subway/elevated train.
-There is also a lack of ambulances and fire trucks. And buses. But hey, we have garbage trucks! AND boats!
-I'm really disappointed you can only customize the cars in your 'fleet.' Why can't I choose my own fleet and add/remove cars as I wish?

So yeah. Characters and story are good. The world is well made. There's lots of alleyways and back doors. Don't forget the BAYOU COUNTRYSIDE!! (I wish Mafia 2 had more of a countryside).

I hardly ever press the whistle key. And I never use the X-ray button.
I found out you can whistle to taxi cabs and they won't stop. From what I understand that's accurate to real life.
I'll have to try out using a steering wheel. I wonder if there is a manual transmission mode in the options menu? It's cool they animated Lincoln using the gear shift.

I quite agree with that list. Though to the game's defence, licensing real car names for a game like this won't ever happen for the sole reason that -say- Ford wouldn't like videos and Google search suggestions mentioning "Ford mustang killing pedestrians speedrun" or something in that notion.
It's bad publicity for any car brands to associate themselves with crime. Hence why GTA has also never had, and never will use real car brands. Besides, I reckon these licenses would cost a lot, which does not weigh up to what you physically get for it, which is just a brand name.
Ever noticed how in games where real car brands are used, there are never any people to hit and rarely any excessive car damage models used?

The story ain't fantastic indeed, but you can't deny that they did put some of effort into it. It's certainly not in the same league as Mafia 1, but it's not halfassed either as far as I've seen.
They even put in small cutscenes of "alternate endings" when Lincoln dies during a mission, which I think is a really cool detail. It is even customised to how you died.

I can only name two crime-focused open world games which had licenced vehicles so far: The Getaway and L.A. Noire. The latter gets a free pass since you get to play as a detective rather than a criminal, while The Getaway did get some controversy for the use of a vehicle belonging to a real-world telecom company, to which subsequent pressings were amended to remove references to BT. The licencing issue is even more so with Ferrari - ever notice how they rarely even show up in Need for Speed? Apparently they seem to take their brand image with so much zeal, as evidenced by how they took umbrage at what deadmau5 did to a Ferrari he bought and customised once.

I did get to play the game for a bit on my PC, but decided not to play it for now as I didn't like the graphics either. Too washed out and glitchy imo; I've seen better chrome effects with the previous game lol. The game's lack of polish shows, but I do agree that it isn't that of a horrible title if not for the rushed nature and lack of side activities.